Former Los Angeles Lakers Lamar Odom took to social media to tell fans that he has been saved by Christianity, and thanked Jesus for saving his life.
“Nowadays I’m doing the best I can in walking with the Lord,” Odom wrote on Instagram. the two-time NBA champion also thanked the founding pastor of the church, Dr. A.R. Vernon, who led him in prayer. “I got saved at The Word Church this weekend.”
Odom credited his new-found faith with saving his life, saying, “I had to show Jesus my appreciation for keeping me alive!”
“Like anyone else, I was just very glad and overwhelmed with all that he’s been through…that he realized there’s a place in your heart that only God can fill – no championship rings, no woman, no amount of money — only Christ can fill that place that he designed,” pastor Vernon told Fox News. “I think that Lamar has come to that place in his life where he knows what’s lasting and eternal. I’m overjoyed for him.
“It takes time to become the Christian that I know he wants to be,” Vernon added, “and we’re committed to helping him find a good local church in the city that he’s in and I encouraged him to read the gospels 20 minutes every day and commit himself to Jesus through prayer.”
Odom was temporarily placed in a medically induced coma in 2015 after being found on the verge of an overdose death.
The former NBA player was hospitalized after being found unconscious at a Nevada brothel. He reportedly had several drugs in his system, including opiates and cocaine, and several of his organs had begun shutting down.
In July, Odom and his two children visited the burial site of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
“I heard he makes miracles happen,” Odom wrote. “It’s a miracle to be here at this place with my children, reflecting on a better life we will build together.”
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